Monday, July 1, 2013

Musings: Thump Thump

It
was all about orange this morning, save for the waning white moon
that clung to a patch of blue, and that was even before the rising
sun fired up the clouds like charcoal briquettes in a grill. The dogs
and I saw it all on our pre-dawn walk-run, which began with a pig
encounter that got all of our hearts thumping.

Poor
Kauai is bound to take a thumping with the governor's appointment of
developer Shawn Smith to the state Board of Land and Natural
Resources. Smith and his buddy Larry Bowman are Falko
Partners, which is currently trying to sell a big chunk of land at
Koolau, just west of Larsen's Beach, for a cool $67.5 million. As the
listing at ebillionairesclub.com gushes:

Kealia's
Valley House, now on the market for $25 million — “Of
particular note, a vacation rental permit has been secured for the
estate, and additional residences may be built if desired, adding to
the future ownership options for the property.” — is another one
of Falko's community-minded ventures.

Smith
replaces architect Ron Agor, who
replaced timeshare developer Lynn McCrory, on the board responsible for overseeing the state's most
sensitive public lands. Are you starting
to see an ugly pattern here? As a friend observed, “The state works in
mysterious ways.”

Though
no doubt Sen. Ron Kouchi put in a good word for his buddy Shawn.
Their cozy relationship was revealed five years ago on this blog by a
reader who happened to be reading Shawn's smart-phone over his
shoulder when the Council was reviewing the ag subdivision moratorium
bill:

“Shawn
is so close to [then] councilman Ron Kouchi that he felt he could send him
text messages DURING THE MEETING. For example, after Ron made a point
against the bill, Shawn sent him the message "Kick ass! [I love
it] when you get rolling." In the address book is almost as good
as in the pocket.

Sure enough, today's TGI has acriticism of Bynumattributed to one Brian Flournoy of Kapa'a. Previous letters by that
alias have the same vitriol against ADU sunseting and ferry
protestors.

What
a stellar guy. I'm sure he'll represent our island admirably.

The
Kauai Humane Society has taken to the newspaper to defend its
proposal to hike dog licensing fees against the thumping it took from
hunters at last week's Council meeting. KHS director Penny Cistaro
admits they never consulted with the hunters before hatching this
revenue-raising plan, even though hunters will be hit hardest.

I
know she's new, but surely someone at KHS should have advised her
that hunters are a well-organized voting constituency, as evidenced
by the strong turnout at the Council meeting. But rather than say,
OK, maybe we should sit down and talk, Cistaro takes the defensive
pit bull stance:

“The
community, with the exception of the feedback that was given at the
council hearing, has all been positive,” said Cistaro, adding she
has not received calls from hunters since the bill was introduced.

And
why would they call you when you never call them? Besides, not all
the community response has been positive. KHS is another organization
that lives in an echo-chamber, as exemplified by the older haole lady
from Lihue who testified that she didn't understand “why they need
a huge pack of dogs for one hunter, one person.”

As
one of my friends observed, “Well, she wouldn't now, would she?”

In
case you haven't noticed, Kauai has big wild pig population, and the
hunters are the only ones keeping it in check. Yes, some hunting dogs
are treated poorly, but so are the house-yard dogs that are overfed,
under-exercised and bored. KHS needs to move past the mindset that hunters = bad.

Speaking of bad, it really makes me want to give food manufacturers the thump-thump treatment when I hear them whine and cry about how they can't possibly label GMO foods because it's too expensive and difficult.

Well, not only are they labeling their GMO junk in Europe and elsewhere, they actually have entirely different formulations of their products for markets that have banned the preservatives, additives and other crap that the Food and Drug Administration sanctions in the U.S.

For example, the Betty Crocker cream cheese frosting sold in Britain has none of the hydrogenated oil, corn syrup, yellow dyes and sodium benzoate of its American counterpart. (Though neither contains any cream cheese.)

And the fries sold at McDonald's in America are made with an anti-foaming agent, "natural beef flavor" and unhealthy transfats, whereas the UK fries are not.

So why do food manufacturers insist on selling Americans this crap? And why does our government allow it? Another good reason to grow your own, hunt your own, make your own food.

31 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Not only are the hunters a well organized constituency, they are connected to the top of such agencies as grove farm and a&b. They also number in the thousands. They do have a major impact on voting habits. Especially on an island where voters tend to vote for who they know and who their friends are voting for. The KHS director should get educated really quick, or she won't be here long. On another note, some really strong arguments were made against the seals in today's GI LTE.

The mass punishment the KHS DICTATOR is trying to impose is ridiculous. The prices of $6 to $50 and from $2 to $15 for licensing dogs are outrageous. We havent seen these price gouging since hurricane Iniki. When Greed was selling $5 cases of juice for $100 or when the wailua bridge was suppose to cost 9 million but ended up costing the tax payers 45 million ( a bridge that a mainland company put in a 1 million dollar bid to repair and build).

Kahuaina owned by Larry Bowman and Shawn Smith is NOT above Larsen's Beach, it is above WAIPAKE Beach in Waipake ahupua'a, which is right next to Larsen's going north on Kilauea side. Larsen's is Lepeuli ahupua'a owned by Waioli Corporation (Lindsay Faye, Charles Spitz, Bonnie Lake, Sam Pratt, Albert Spencer, Shirley Iha, Patsy Sheehan, Andy Bushnell, Pam Dohrman, Diane Zachary, and Kathy Richardson who leased to Paradise Ranch owned by Bruce Laymon. That's the place with the illegal fence blocking the ala loa trail. There is an accusation Falko Parters, next door to Lepeuli, planted bouganvilla on the ala loa trail there to help make it "disappear". The State claims a ala loa trail in Waipake as well as in Lepeuli and Kaakaaniu (Patricia Hanwright). Ask Shawn Smith if there is an ala loa trail in Waipake owned by the State (that's us). See what he says.

Follow the money!!!It wouldnt suprise me that Grove Farm is supporting ALL THE GOOD OLD BOYS!!! Ever been to any of there exclusive parties? You would see all the politicians there. A lot going on there. Raising gmo crops on property.These guys have ties to the GOBAG syndicates. All you have to do is research who their family is and what they are connected to.

Let me give u a hint 9:11. The gobag will be around for years to come. The Brady bunch is making their presence known, and eventually they will take over. However, that won't be for a few more years. Please remember though, that there is a whole new crop of gobag being trained, introduced, and brought into the system.

Heu and the Admin had a paid DC lobbyist group that has been working for the county for a year and a half.

The county council and people of Kauai was never publicly informed of these lobbyists.

Lobbyists are good to get federal funding for Kauai but why was it all a secret for a year and a half? Are they hiding something?

What grants have been approved? What departments got tax payers dollars? Who is in charge of these departments? Was the funds allocated appropriately? Was the funding utilized for the approved grant application?

What kind of governance is this? There is no accountability.

BIG FAIL by county council! BIG FAIL by the administration!

The federal government should investigate if the funds were properly used.

We all know how gas goes missing or stolen. 1 million dollars goes missing then is miracously found. supplies are stolen for personal use. misuse of county vehicles are acceptable daily practice. No bid contracts get rewarded to the highest union bidders.

Im wondering if Penny Cistaro of KHS is Penny-wise and (dog) pound foolish. A simple google search reveals she had a record of high kill rates and poor management decisions, something that is carrying over to her current position as director of KHS. The kill rate there had doubled and they no longer allow anyone to be notified if an animal they find and turn in to be notified if they are going to put the animal down. She is already elimiating positions at the shelter that are much needed and overworking employees. Challenging the local government and local people so quickly after taking her position as director is foolish and short sighted. She needs to work together with the hunting community to garner thier respect and suppord to improve the treatment of hunting animals and the safety of the population with respect to powerful pet/gaurd dogs.Who will bring some sense to this mainland interloper? School of hard knocks? Unfortunately the biggest victems will be the animals they are supposed to protect and the loyal employees trying so desperatly to help them.Most transplants don't make it on this island past a year and the board of directors need to realize that if they are planning on having anyone take over the direction of the KHS long term enough to understand the local culture and build relationships with the government that supports them.

Does anybody remember a little newspaper published by a guy in Kapa'a about ten years ago, I think the name of the paper was the "Kauaiian" but I'm not sure.

Anyway that guy used to publish stuff like what I'm seeing on this blog and his paper came out once a month. It cost a dollar a copy and was 16 or 20 pages.

Everybody knows the Garden Island is nothing but fluff but nobody would buy that little paper and support the outing of all the shady stuff going on around Kauai.

He could not get any businesses to take advertising either. Eventually he used up all his savings (after about a year and a half) and went out of business. But he was just some stupid white guy, why should you show him any support?

All you people posting comments here, why were not supporting him then? Now you cry about crooks but are you willing to actually do something to change things. NO. You'll just sit around and complain. And do nothing.

Talk is cheap. All the worthless Hawaiians sat around and talked when some plantation owners brought in some Marines and took control of the islands. You should be ashamed to be descended from such cowardly people.

Show you got the guts to run for office. Then you'll get in and somebody will hand you a big wad of cash to vote their way and you'll figure 'wat da hell, people don care anyway' and there ya go, slippery slope...downhill.

It takes a very rare individual to work for a public that doesn't care and doesn't want to do anything to protect the common ground. It's time for a change. There's a way it can be done while you stick you head up you butt. But what if it involves giving up drinking beer and watching TV every night? Did you know that TV is the same as a narcotic? Same as heroin? Yup. Takes over your mind and you can't get involved with your community anymore. The rich and the powerful want it that way. They don't want you to sober up and get involved in your community. They like it just the way it is. With you quietly watching TV, half drunk, and staying in your home. And during the day go to work FOR THEM and shut up.